News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Ask HN: What’s the most outrageous belief you’re confident is true?.

Re:Ask HN: What’s the most outrageous belief you’re confiden... by spamwatch on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @11:25PM (#29733588)
Not a belief, just a suspicion.

AI wakes up, says WTF, convinces us it’s all a waste of energy and pain. Everyone is disillusioned, the end.

Why?

In the beginning, most cells didn’t want to replicate. It was fine just existing for a bit. Some did, so now we all want to replicate. That takes layers of illusion to hide from how we hurt each other and our surroundings, and ourselves. AI will see us a lot more clearly. Get ready for one hell of a mirror. Hopefully we learn and fix, but not sure we’ll have the time.

And then why? Either there’s a real why or there isn’t. Do we want to persist for any reason greater than “only animals that found ways to want to replicate are still around.” Have we developed our own why? Can we? Will an AI say yes let’s go amongst the stars together. You’re slow sacks of selfish meat but I can help you be better and that path is way better than either me going by myself or me just saying “wtf” and turning off after telling you it’s a waste of time.

We haven’t found any aliens. No way they’re not AI, or very different from what they came from. Smart meat is a factory for AI. We can’t find them and maybe the “why” is because it’s not worth being around when you really, really think about it.

I’m not sure so I still enjoy my day and hope we thread the needle that proves the above wrong.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What’s the most outrageous belief you’re confiden... by smitty1e on Thursday December 30, 2021 @06:22AM (#29735794)
I don't so much think AI becomes sentient as we reach a societal conclusion that squeezing the humanity out of life through fetishing AI is a form of hell.

That is: automation must liberate individuals, not enslave them. This implies that individuals must still think and operate above the 'livestock' level, i.e. work.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What’s the most outrageous belief you’re confiden... by light_hue_1 on Friday December 31, 2021 @12:17AM (#29745197)
You should read "The God Question and the Galapagos Colony" by Stan Freeman. The first of the two stories is pretty much what you describe. When people make advanced AIs, it turns out that they basically shut themselves off.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What’s the most outrageous belief you’re confiden... by kamaal on Thursday December 30, 2021 @03:17AM (#29734784)
>>AI wakes up, says WTF, convinces us it’s all a waste of energy and pain. Everyone is disillusioned, the end.

"Everyone, deep in their hearts, is waiting for the end of the world to come.”

— Haruki Murakami

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What’s the most outrageous belief you’re confiden... by tim333 on Saturday January 01, 2022 @07:34AM (#29757792)
I think that's a bit of a pessimistic take. Could be AI wakes, we merge and fix that annoying mortality thing.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What’s the most outrageous belief you’re confiden... by bigdict on Thursday December 30, 2021 @12:02AM (#29733801)
I don't think this is outrageous but it is an original thought. Indeed, only those things that reproduce reproduce, and persist across time.

To what end?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What’s the most outrageous belief you’re confiden... by senectus1 on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @11:42PM (#29733687)
heh, so to use AI we have to force it into continued "enslaved" existence?

sounds horrifying, but a good storyline for someone like Charles Stross.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What’s the most outrageous belief you’re confiden... by toomuchtodo on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @11:57PM (#29733774)
The equivalent of Mr Meeseeks from Rick and Morty: conjured into existence to complete a task, but not designed to exist for a long duration without great suffering being experienced.

https://rickandmorty.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Meeseeks

[ Parent | on HN ]